tracy: i don't know about that. finally, here's mike: tracy: we love hearing from you. send the ow an e-mail to gerri@foxbusiness.com. that's it for tonight's willis report. thanks for joining us. don't forget to dvr the show if you can't catch us live. ha a good night, everyone, see you tomorrow. ♪ lou: good evening, everybody. presidt obamcould hardly have chosen a worse place to be today. the president flew to michigan where helasted the republican-led state legislature and the republican governor fo their support of righto-work legislation. his timing could hardly have been worse that worker rights leglation

will be voted on and gen final approval tomorrow and be sgned into law by govern rick snyder. michigan becomes the 24th state in the nation to ratify a aw that protects workers from being forced to pay union dues a a condition of their employment. we'll be examining tonight what's happening inichigan and in washington, d.c. with the author of "shadow bosses: how government. employee unions control america and rob taxpayer blind." llory factor joins us. also tonight, egypt's president, muhammad morsi, ordering the egan military to arrest people in the street even as he claimed to have rescinded the ctatorial powers he assumed which have spurre violent demonstrations. and a new intelligence report concludes that america's time as the lone perpower is nearing an end. former director of national intelligence jo negro panty joins us to talk about our future as a superpower and the challenges that we'll surely

face we begin tonight with one of the few scheduling misadventures of president obama'swire tenure in -- entire tenure in office. e president speaking to autoworkers outside detroit today, aday before governor snyder will sign michigan' newly-passed right-to-work law into effect. the presidenttanding firmly with the unio that worked hard to get him reelected. >> wha we shouldn't do, i st gotta say this, wt we shouldn't be doing is try to take away your rights to bargain @or better wages to work -- [cheers and applau] the so-called right-to-work laws, they don't have anything to do with economi, they have everything to do with politics. [cheerand applause what they're really taing about is giving you the right to work for less money. lou: while michigan becomes the th state to ofcially grant workers the right to opt out of paying union dues, the state could have been the 25th with a right-to-work law. twenty-two othertate legislatures considered the pro-worker legistion this

year, and three other republica governors, those of south carolina, teessee and india, signed bills intoaw. new hampshire could have been the 24th state to pass that right-to-work law. its state legislature did pass the bill, but outgoing democratic governor john lynch veed it. the president's public support of unions today poorly timed for another reason. chrysler's management forced to bow to the united autoworker union as the company rehired 13 employees who had been caught drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana while on the job. rysler's spokesman said the company was forced to respect a union arbitrator's desion. and while the president was in michigan, reports that a chinese auto parts company has purchased bankrupt a123 systems, a batte maker that received more than half of a $250 million taxpayer-funded obama stimulus

grant. a123 systems was once heralded by energy secretary steven chu as a success story for amerin manufacturing. the green battery maker blaming weak demand for electric cars for their failure. china, obvioussy, has plans to fix all of that with a little help from the american taxpayer and, of course, the president. wile we focus on the fiscal cliff negotiations, or more appropately the iasse many our state governments aren't in much better shape. state pensionsystems, unfunded liabilities are now estimated to be in the range of $2.5 trillion to almt $4 trillion. leading is california witmore than $370 billion in unfunded pension liabilities, only 47% are currently fued. a pension debt per household in california of aost $30,000. illinois close behind, $167 billion in unfundedliabilities, 28% funded, and th state

pension debt per household amounting to over $34,000. in municipal bonds illinois sold over $5illin bonds this year making it the third biggest debt issuer in the first tee arters this year. california and new york, numbers e and two with. the issue of unfunded pension liabilities with the passage of right-to-work laws is a subject that i'm going to be taking up with our next guest. -@mallory fctor, author of can the bestseller, "shadow boxes: government nioos control amera and rob taayers blind." we are delighted to have you with us. let's turn first, if i may, to the presiden telling autoworkers that right-to work-laws don have anything to do with eonomics, they have everything to do with politics. your reaction? >> that's absolutely absurd. i mean, j look at the economics. a business emoymentrowth, if you look at the right-to-work

states, they're up two points plus. if you look at the forced unionism states over the past decade, their employment growth is down three points or more. lou: we've got a graphic of that, and i'd like to put that up to just show everyone the percentage growthn i want to @all nonarm, private sector payrolls or business employment, if you will. there in rig-to-work states, as we take a look at that, up 2.4%. enforced union stes down 3%. that is a significant statement when it cos to right-to-work states in this cntry. >> it sure is. the real bottomine to it is people are voting with their feet. since 1990s -- since 1990 every time we've reapportioned the united states house of representaves, the right-to-work states have gned

eight to nine representatives while the forced unionism states have lost eight to nine. the dierence since 1990 has been 25 sts going from the forced unionism states to the right-to-work ates. peoplere voting with the feet. people don't want to forced into unionism, they don't wnt to have a pay union to keep their jobs. lou: and the fact of the matter is tt a heeritage study shows a quarter of union members would stop paying dues if they cod. they're being begin tha opportunitunder legislation. as we repor 22 states considerinit this yar, four of them tually got itdone including now most receny, of course, the state of michigan. how porful is this movement going to be over the course of the next year? >> i think this is a very imrtant movemt, because people want jobs. and wh happens is if your forced unionism destroys jobs by rcing people to paythe

union's dues and foing all sorts of feaherbedding, all sorts of regulations which don't serve the company or productivity. rced unionism is bad. people ve against it all the time. in wnsin whenpublic employees were given the opportunity, more th half of themaid good-bye to the union halls. lou: well, also, we're talki about public employee unions, and ase're talking -- by the strongest estimate ofnfunded liabilities on the part of states,e're talking about $3.9 trillionalmost $4 trillion. this is amassiv problem coming at us like a locomotive, if you will. and almost no one is paying attention to ias we focus on the fiscal cliff and what will be an agreement, ifs reached, at'll amou to something in the neighborhood of a couple trillion dollars >> and the forced union states are lookg for tte feral vernment to bail them out. but more important than that,

the dems, the decrats don't want to lose the forced union states -- lou: well, i'm not talking about the fored union states now, i'm talking about every state in the union. and theact is that we're talking about unfunded ppnsion liabilities of $4 trillion, mallory. and -- >> but much worse in t forced unions. lou: excuse me, if i may finish. >> i'm sorry. lou: $4 trilliothat no one is paying attention to, how will it be resolved? >> it's tough to resolve, but it's much worse. e point i was trying to make is it' much worse the forced uniin states, much worse. it's almost double. that's one of the issues. we're going to have a big problem resolving that. it's going to be a major proem with services that are absolutely necessary not being able to ke up because of all these pensns that are nded. lou: allight. mallory, we appreciate your being with us. thanks so much, mallory factor. we're going to have uch more on the president's opposition o

pro-worker laws and the rising economic power not only of unions, but of china in our economy. we'll be taking that u with the a-team here tonight. stay with us. the fiscal cliff fiasco. the obama plan, the boehner plan, will either alter america's rising rate of spending or lessen the size our bloatedgornment? the answer in tonight's chalk talk. >>is the housing market really recovering? $17 trillion is riding on the answer. the president and ceo o citi mortgage joins us next.

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lou: new rorts show foreign investment is heingthe housg market slowly recover. citimortgage president and ceo

sanjiv das joins us here in just moments to discuss thatnd much more when it comesto housing. in the money lineonight, investors waiting cautiously to see whetether washington can wok out a deal to aid the scal cliff. stocks rising, well, modestly is a big, strg word for what happened. technology stocks helping the dow up 15 points. the s&p up a fraction, the nasdaq rose nine. tring light. technology stocks strong in the market, an i'm speaking, obviously, comparatily. hewlett-packard settin the tone, leading the sector, not commenting on speculation that carl icahn has been amazing a position in the stock -- amassing position in the stock. cisco systems -- mcdonald's, also a dowstock rising on news that sales rose 2.5% last month. that stock up just abou 1 today. piper jaffray calling ale a

$900 stock based on fundamentals. it may be, but it's got a ways to go after today, appl losing $3.43 on the day, $8 above its low of the session and trading slightly higher in after hours. crude oil prices down othe day for a fif straight session closing at 85.56, the decline in crude also showing up at the pump. the average price of a gallon of gasoline dropping1 cents, and we're looking at an average price of $3.34 a gallon. in the bo market, the yield on theen-year note stands at 1.61%. well, foreign buyers hping at the margin at least to boost our improved housing market. those buyers accounting for some $8billion in home sales over the pastea $9 billionf those dollars coming from the chinese, they're second only to those canadians as the largest foreign home buyers in this country. joining us now to discuss the state of the market, the ceo, the president of citimortgage, sanjiv das.

good to have you with us. thank you, lou. lou lao sanjiv, let's start with the overall robustness, the popower of this housing recover. is that too strong language to describe what' happening? >>haps too strong, but i will say that there are very clear signs now that housing is recovering on a sustained basis. 18 out of the 20 t cities in case shiller are now showing growth, you know, it appears to be, i think,hat, 7 or 8 about six months ago. so it's been very strong. lou: or fewer. >> or fewer, yeah, a f fewer. but, you know, also remembering that hom prices dropped so much from peak to trough. theyropped about 34%. and so they're recovering, be i theye recovering -- but they're recovering fm a very low base. but we're seeg sustained growth. lou: growt sales moving higher, pris, how long -- well, first, do you expect to see a price recovery as well as a sales recovery, do you expect

that price recovery to ever get us back to par, if you will? >> wel the general view, who knows. but the general view -- lou: you alwaystell how intelligent a person is byhe number of times they say who knows. >> well, i'm not beingcute. lou: well, it's very wise. >>fou look at long-term trends from 68 onwds if you drew a trend line, you know that there was a bubb in e 2006-2007 era. from wre we are rit now to getting back to the trend line, the general view i it'll be about 2020 to gethere. lou: s if somebody's looking at a profit, they might eagerly jump at that modest profit rather than wait for a full -- >> the growth is expected to bee at about 3-5% -- 4-5%. lo we're looking at the ovalvalue somewhere around 17 trillion, a littl over 10 trilli in debt, 7 trillion in the market itself. how much do can you expt to seehat market actuall grow?

>> well -- lou: or do you? >> well, that market's shrinking. you ow, u.s. consumers had leverage of about 124% at the peak. now it's at about 114 president, and -- 4%, and that's one of the biggest headwinds in tms just the growth of debt. that's not such a bad thing ther. we should thk about leverage, consumer levere, household levera -- lou: depends on the quality of the leverage. >> depends on the quality of t leverage, and i think the quality ofhe leverage around 100 is where you want it to be, and i think that's probably where a normal, steady environment should be. lou: so is it your sense that this market, this recovery right now is vulnerable given the fiscal cliff, all of the uncertainties that ae -- it seems -- mounting more, the folks in washington talk. >> i'd sayhat this recover is fragile. itepen, you know, it's al been ve patchy. as i said, it grew from -- it's growing from a very, very low

point in the economy, so you're seeing markets like phoenix, detroiiami kind of clouding some of this information. but i would say that the fiscal cliff disssions are definitely not helping. i think consumers see the implications of tax reduction, for example, coming off -- lou: what would that do to the market if it were to be implemente >> well, i think it'll definitely hurt the market, and i tnk i would not recomme doing that at this stage of recovery. lou: somehow i thought that would be your answer, as it would be for most homeowners who have gotten us to that deduction. >> sure. lou: sanj, great to have you. >> my pleasure. lou: sony's "skyfall" retained the top spot. the james bond movie took in another 11 million liing its domestic total to morehan 26161 million worldwide. "skyfallhas brought in more than $900 million so far, that makes it son highest-grossin film in history.

the film, by the way, will open in china early next year which should boost those numbers, i would guess, a little. the movie "rise of the guardians," it was send with $10.5 million in sales. a really quiet weekend. twilht's breaking dawn part 2 taking third place, it brought in more than $9 million for entertai coming u america's status is the sole superpower in question the former director of natnal intelligence, john negro uponty, joins us to assessour superpower status and our future. president obama and hous speaker boehner meeting ooer the weekend. whose views the numbers will prevail. we, i'llhow you how much it matters tohe nation in tonight's chalk talk. for many, nexium helps relieve

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getting pretty excited about that fiscal cliff negotiation or impasse, however y want to3 style it. but i want to show you, if i may tonight, very quickly, what ally is at stake and how it's going to change the fiscal future of the country, our stiny as a nation. becae this is a big deal, and we're taing about a fiscal cliff and great drama. if we stay on the same spending path, i thought i'd show you what happens if we change it to the boehner plan, the obama plan. let's start out with the do-nothing plan, because that's the plan we've got right now. the congressional budget office estimates our fiscal year 2013 deficit will be, well, $104 illion for fiscal 2013, okay? and here's what happens t our national debt as a result of thisaseline. it's going tt surge from $16.3 trillion to $17.5 trillion at

2013, then weet out here to about 2014, it's going to be, well, it's going to be about 19.4. 20.3rillion, 20.3 trillion if we do nothing in 26: and by 2022, out here, it's going to be $25.8 trillion. that's if we do nothing about this spending, this runaway spending, this irresponsible government. now let's take a look at what happens if president obama gets tough, and he getst done. e president calling for $1.6 trillion in higher taxes. he wants $82 billion a year from that top 2%. by the way, that's the same amount of netax his in the president's 2013 budg that the senate rejected unanimously back in may. so let's assume that things can happen differently, but let's give him th whole full-board

lo okay in the republica staff in the senate budget committee looked at those numbers, the president's budget, and here's what that would get us, all those new tax hikes that he's demanding so toughly and sternly and, i think, rather macho. by 2022 instead of 25.8, oh, no, that's going to get cut down. it'll amount to $25.4 trillion. if, we'll call it obama wins. the natiol media waiting for that one. that's what's going to be. it's going t be a realy dramatic -- you know, i ought to just trace that line, the change and show you exactly how it changes. this is how that line changes over the course of the next ten years, if the president wins. unfortunately, neither party is offering a serious proposal to imither our deficit or our

de. the obama plan has $2 trillion in deficit reduction over the next ten years. the boehner plan goes for $2 trillionn deficit reduction, boehner wants, oh, yeah, he's going to kkck tail, allght? we're going to get2.2 bilion in t spending of this country. let me repase that. that'll be a $2.2 trillion reduction in the totallanned spending. the growth of our spending will alter, it'lle just about that line right there. we're potentially oking at the republican plan, well, in 2020, i guess the best way to show you isust how tough it is. we'll only have a deficit and a debt, a national debt under the boehner plan -- remember, this is the o plan, is is the b plan -- $25.2 trillion by 2022.

mr. obama wants $350 billn in entitlement cuts over the next ten years, mr. boehner wants $800 billion in entitlement cuts, and we're going to see a big, dramatic negotiation. and whatou and i is -- and all of our fellow americans are looking at is the prospect of a recession next year if the president and mr. boehner can't come to an agreement, as much as a 10% unemployment rate because both this president and the republican party, as you can see here, are playing at the margin. and the national media is not focusing on what the realy is. they're just playing games right in washingn.he folks in office andhis president is guilty of class warfare. fo what? for that? are you kidding me? president obama seems to love the drama. i thought he dn't like drama. but the reality iss there will e is little impa our fiscal future. and as nation, after all of

the drama and whatever the outcome, we remain in geat jeopardy. because this isn't a fiscal future any of us, any of us wants. morsi declares martial law in gypt and claims he's not a dictator. the obama mile east policy coming undone. the a-team reacts. ama what? another ste tells the federal government it'ssnot intereste in that obamacare exchange, and some democrats appear to be rethinking obamacare altogether. wel tell you all about it. and america's superpower status, a shoc new repor by our intelligence community warning that our power may be in decline. we'll be talking about our future as a superpower with the former director of national intelligence, john negroponte, next.

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lou: didn't states may lose the status of the superpower by 2030 according to the national intelligence council. united states, othe reports suggest would be the first with a shad as it surpasses north america with global power. talk about these implications, john negroponte the first director of national intelligence serving fiv times as ambassador, agreed to have you with us.

starting with the middle east president morsi with those that provoke 78 demonstrations to order the military to arrest civians. your reaction? >> in demonstration of the precarious nature of the situation in. we cannot see egypt go over the brink. what would happen if for some reason egypt pulled back frothe recognition -- we have a critical role to play in many different ways. >> with the obama foreign policy the way the

administrations and has engaged morsi, a muslim brotrhood, armey, egypt, a re you optimistic the diplomacy is on the right path? >> i'd love think anybody knew wt would happen when mubarak was first opposed but there is no easy fixr? solution. we have to stay closeith the military vil society and no real substitute for closer engagement by the united states. some people may think we are a declining power but we're still the most influential and people in the middle east expect us to play a strong moral. lou: 4.8 mlion dollars

slated with conditions since morsi mediated brokered agreement between gaza and the israelis. today it was announced the f-16s will be shipped has crits and furious. is it correct? >> that stresses the point* we need to maintain a good relationship. when we became disenchanted with the government and military of pakistan rate cut off assistance to the pakistani military that led

to consequences. these choices are difficult but i am inclined to greater rath than lesser engagement. we shoulnine just wi our hands of the situation. lou: with the obama intelligence council report talks about en we will not be auperpower but the first amon equals projecting around 2030? your reckoning if you agree with the ascenon of other powers? >> cent the fcial crisis there is ben a tendeecy to write it down but they have been unduly

opmistic or even wrong. rear the most powerful economy in the world. demographically we are a healthy nation was the trd most populous nation eve through 2015. the noon and we are eclipse has been wrong. the is trut the center of gravity is shifting toward asasia but away from eope and not away from the united states. that argues for the posse the administration has adopted cultivatg those relationships. with trade and investment opportunities.

we do that. it is the righthg to do. >> when union shows power aninfluence of drug use and to get liquor up at work. caught on video. and navy pacific fleet commandetomorrow. the "a team" will assess all of that. silencfrom the president and spear boehner their negotiations. negotiations. stay with us.

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lou: defense officials have identified highly decated decorated -- decorat navy seal that was killed over the weekend. 28 year-old from pennsylvania of member of

tte eliteeal team six kill in combat during the mission to rescue dr. seph who was adopted by the taliban last wednesday successfully rescued by special operation forces one congressmen pilot at the federal budget and his reco before going on the talk-show. here he is yesterday. >> one of the issues left alone as the mischa who was responsible, how we got here and tolay in medicare and medicaid and social security as the drivers of the deficit. two wars on a credit card? financial institutions. lou: amnesia apparently is

contagious. here are the fac with an 40% ofhe budget is spent on medicare and social security. the congressmen could recall e voting record himself he vod to approve more spending four times over the past five years. grace of workers made national headlines when a local affiliate, the drinking and smoking marijuana during the lunch break. >> high. shouldn't you be building cars? don't you work at the chrysler factory? the government spent a lot of money to bail you out. you are on your lunch break drking? >> rysler fired 30 workers

but the cases ended up in the union arbitration ocess and has been returned to the job. chrysler does not agree but it wants to put this situation behind them as so many do. chrysler said we respect the agements procedure process in the collective bargaining agreement andhe relationship with united autoworkers. those that will notgo the of state exchange, where republicans says he is convinced the governmt makes up the ilementation ast goes along in oviding almost no information on how works. the state have to reach a decision by friday. growing democratic

oppositionet to take effect senators and senators elecsend a letter to harry reid urging a delay that the medical device industry has given little guidance. obama and speaker boehner meeting face-to-face over the fiscal cliff. they're not sayinn what they talked about as the "a team" joins us next.

lou: the joining now e "a team" special assistant to the george bush ron christie, d pulitzer prize winning journalist never an assistant to george w. bush love and president mors says the rescind his powers to rested a civilian industry? >> good news tonight. he knowledg he had to make a concession that doesn't matter in the long run. it iall about t referendum for the islamist constitution. >> he has not backed away. lou: giving the obama administration, john

negroponte e ging support do you agree things are betterhan six months ago? >> here i have to agree they acknowledge immorality. egypt is going in a bad direction. there is nothing we could have done. >> egypt has retained with the policies it is pursuing. the decision to go to day u are the political expert , to go into michigan that frustrates the president ey just soldd

a123 1/4 million taxpayer money and 13 union workers going ba to chrysler. it is the glory day. >> the campaign has never ended. the president said if i find any excuse to get outside of washington. >> it is one powerful exit. he wanted to stay there. >> if he was serious he would spend time burning e midnight oil. meeting with house speaker

is great. but meat with the senate and there is no negotiation there. lou: i would give you a hint to the next question. why should we take either seriously with the negotiation? said will take a break we will be back.

lou: we are back with the "a team" why should it we take the president seriously? >> he has neglected to put cuts on the le, real spending cuts with discretionary spending. >> do you think speaker

boehnethinks what do i have to lose? may embrace the cuts and have agreed on the tax increases they hav bipartisanship re you go. >> they are worried about the cot of public opinion. weird 3-d republicans cannot get wobbll. >> disses obama's ultimatum why can't they say you decide? >> >> tn the republicans will fight another day on the spending cuts. the president knows said the deal is retroactive so this can go away with the flick

of a pen. u: a few weeks to go? i confuse christmas and the fiscal cliff. [lauter] >> i think theresident wins no matter what. lou: you could have saved me..3 [laughter] if the president does what you what he will blame the republicans. >> what we wanted him to do is a deal. >> but he also wins. lou: take the boehner play and or the obama plan as ter stand it it doesn't make a difference over the ne decade where we were with the national debt. its about 20.$5 trillion.

it is beyond ignorance to talk about spending cuts when they alk about reducing the rate of spending. >> will not be partisan. [laughter] democrats ve shown no interest to cut entitlemen >> 40% of the better budget going to entlements and democrats not putting this on the table and not being serious. lou: to o peat it neither boner nor the president proposs with 25 point* $5 trillion over the nex decade? why should read t excited? >> we respond to a crisis this and avoiding it. another one is coming. >>